I removed my wheel liners that are a horrible felt material that trap moister and remain wet forever... is there a plastic alternative on other models?

I thought it was a great and novel recycled material avoiding or at least minimising the use of plastics.

 

Mine dont seem to retain moisture for any length of time, they are more tolerant of impact damage and absorb sound well.

 

The only chance you would have for finding plastic replacements is if they changed from plastic to the fibre ones during the production run of your vehicle.

 

On HB Vivas there was a cardboard sheild at the rear of the front wheel arch which soaked up water like a sponge, rotted and allowed mud to accumulate behind rotting the wing, the ones on my Octavia & Yeti dont do any of that.

Never had a problem, wouldn't be without them, they do as designed.

The reason being is that they absorb more road noise and also prevent that annoying sound of stones and gravel etc hitting the wheel arches.

I certainly would not remove them, that would be like going back to the bad old days of rusty wings, inner wings, strut top mounts, sill closing panels etc etc.

 

All those became a bad memory with my first vehicles fitted with plastic wheel arch liners (Sierras for me) and the fibre ones to me are an improvement on the plastc, they dont crack or split with a minor shunt or from debris thrown up from the road by the tyres.